Sintilimab (anti-PD-1 antibody) plus chidamide (histone deacetylase inhibitor) in relapsed or refractory extranodal natural killer T-cell lymphoma (SCENT): a phase Ib/II study.

Anti-PD-1 antibodies are a favorable treatment for relapsed or refractory extranodal natural killer T cell lymphoma (RR-ENKTL), however, the complete response (CR) rate and the duration of response (DOR) need to be improved. This phase 1b/2 study investigated the safety and efficacy of sintilimab, a fully human anti-PD-1 antibody, plus chidamide, an oral subtype-selective histone deacetylase inhibitor in 38 patients with RR-ENKTL. Expected objective response rate (ORR) of combination treatment was 80%. Patients received escalating doses of chidamide, administered concomitantly with fixed-dose sintilimab in 21-days cycles up to 12 months. No dose-limiting events were observed, RP2D of chidamide was 30 mg twice a week. Twenty-nine patients were enrolled in phase 2. In the intention-to-treat population (n = 37), overall response rate was 59.5% with a complete remission rate of 48.6%. The median DOR, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were 25.3, 23.2, and 32.9 months, respectively. The most common grade 3 or higher treatment-emergent adverse events (AEs) were neutropenia (28.9%) and thrombocytopenia (10.5%), immune-related AEs were reported in 18 (47.3%) patients. Exploratory biomarker assessment suggested that a combination of dynamic plasma ctDNA and EBV-DNA played a vital prognostic role. STAT3 mutation shows an unfavorable prognosis. Although outcome of anticipate ORR was not achieved, sintilimab plus chidamide was shown to have a manageable safety profile and yielded encouraging CR rate and DOR in RR-ENKTL for the first time. It is a promising therapeutic option for this population.

Tislelizumab monotherapy in patients with previously untreated early-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma: a real-world study.

The anti-PD-1 antibodies have been reported to show a striking effect in relapsed and refractory(R/R) classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL), however, there is still limited real-world data assessing the role of anti-PD-1 antibody monotherapy in early-stage cHL. In this retrospective analysis, we reported the effectiveness and safety of tislelizumab monotherapy in the first-line therapy of early-stage cHL. Twenty-three consecutive patients (10 males and 13 females) with previously untreated stage I A-II B cHL were included. At interim evaluation after 2 doses of tislelizumab monotherapy, 11 of 23 patients (47.8%) achieved complete response (CR). At the end of tislelizumab monotherapy (EOTM), objective response was observed in 22 of 23 patients (95.7%), with CR in 16 patients (69.6%). Among six patients with PR-EOTM, two patients underwent 4 cycles of ABVD chemotherapy and one patient underwent 4 cycles of tislelizumab plus AVD. One patient who developed progressive disease (PD) after 4 doses of tislelizumab subsequently underwent 4 cycles of ABVD chemotherapy. Except for four patients with CR-EOTM, consolidative radiotherapy was given to 19 patients. All patients obtained CR at the end of all treatments. With a median follow-up time of 21.3 months (range, 6.9-32.7 months), the estimated 2-year PFS rate and 2-year OS rate were 95.65% and 100%, respectively. Except for grade 3 lymphocyte count decreased, no other grade 3/4 TRAE was observed. In addition, no serious AE was reported. Our preliminary data observed that tislelizumab monotherapy was safe and highly effective in previously untreated early-stage cHL.

Single-cell RNA-seq reveals novel immune-associated biomarkers for predicting prognosis in AML patients with RUNX1::RUNX1T1.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with t(8;21)(q22;q22);(RUNX1::RUNX1T1) is highly heterogeneous and malignant. It has a relapse rate of nearly 40 %, resulting in clinical resistance or refractoriness to chemotherapy. Immune cells, particularly CD4(+) T and CD8(+) T lymphocytes, have been discovered to be dysfunctional in this condition, and functional recovery shows promising efficiency in preclinical trials. Here, with single-cell transcriptomic data from de novo AML patients with RUNX1::RUNX1T1 and at various stages following disease progression, we investigated the genes correlated with T-cell proliferation and activation. In leukemia cells, ADA, AHCY, GPN3 and LTBR were markedly highly expressed compared to those in T-cell at diagnosis, and they tended to increase with disease progression. Additionally, we discovered that AHCY was an effective biomarker to predict the overall survival as well as relapse-free survival of AML patients with RUNX1::RUNX1T1. The correlation of AHCY with infiltrated immune cells and immune checkpoints was also investigated. AML cohorts from two other independent studies, TCGA LAML (n = 145) and the GEO dataset (n = 104), also demonstrated an inferior outcome for AML patients with high AHCY expression. In conclusion, our research revealed that AHCY might function as a novel indicator to predict the prognosis and efficiency of T-cell proliferation and activation in AML patients with RUNX1::RUNX1T1.

Outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with lymphomas participating in registered clinical trials: A real-world study from China in the Omicron outbreak era.

BACKGROUND: This real-world study investigated the outcome of COVID-19 in lymphoma patients participating in registered clinical trials and explored potential risk factors with the outcome of COVID-19 during the first wave of the Omicron outbreak in China. METHODS: One hundred and ten patients participating in registered clinical trials and diagnosed with COVID-19 in our center between December 1, 2022, and January 31, 2023, were included. RESULTS: Four (3.6%) patients were identified as severe COVID-19 and 2 (1.8%) as critical COVID-19, respectively. The mortality rate observed was 2.73% for the entire cohort, 33.3% for the severe/critical COVID-19 group, and 18.8% for the hospitalized group. The 90-day OS was 98.2% for the entire cohort, 66.7% for the severe/critical COVID-19 group, and 87.5% for the hospitalized group. Advanced age (≥70 years), comorbidities, and PI3K inhibitor-containing regimen were significantly associated with the severity of COVID-19. Patients with indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas were less likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19. CONCLUSION: This study reported similar clinical features of COVID-19 in our cohort with that of non-hematological malignancy (HM) patients, while the proportion of severe/critical COVID-19 and the mortality rate were relatively higher than non-HM patients. Our findings provided valuable experience to aid clinical researchers with managing lymphoma patients participating in registered clinical trials during the ongoing pandemic of the Omicron variant.

Integration of CD34+CD117dim population signature improves the prognosis prediction of acute myeloid leukemia.

BACKGROUND: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is a hematological cancer characterized by heterogeneous hematopoietic cells. Through the use of multidimensional sequencing technologies, we previously identified a distinct myeloblast population, CD34+CD117dim, the proportion of which was strongly associated with the clinical outcome in t (8;21) AML. In this study, we explored the potential value of the CD34+CD117dim population signature (117DPS) in AML stratification. METHODS: Based on the CD34+CD117dim gene signature, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression analysis was performed to construct the 117DPS model using the gene expression data from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (GSE37642-GPL96 was used as training cohort; GSE37642-GPL570, GSE12417-GPL96, GSE12417-GPL570 and GSE106291 were used as validation cohorts). In addition, the RNA-seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-LAML and Beat AML projects of de-novo AML patients were also analyzed as validation cohorts. The differences of clinical features and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were further explored between the high-risk score group and low-risk score group. RESULTS: The high-risk group of the 117DPS model exhibited worse overall survival than the low-risk group in both training and validation cohorts. Immune signaling pathways were significantly activated in the high-risk group. Patients with high-risk score had a distinct pattern of infiltrating immune cells, which were closely related to clinical outcome. CONCLUSION: The 117DPS model established in our study may serve as a potentially valuable tool for predicting clinical outcome of patients with AML.

The circular RNA circDLG1 promotes gastric cancer progression and anti-PD-1 resistance through the regulation of CXCL12 by sponging miR-141-3p.

BACKGROUND: Dysregulation of circular RNAs (circRNAs) plays an important role in the development of gastric cancer; thus, revealing the biological and molecular mechanisms of abnormally expressed circRNAs is critical for identifying novel therapeutic targets in gastric cancer. METHODS: A circRNA microarray was performed to identify differentially expressed circRNAs between primary and distant metastatic tissues and between gastric cancer tissues sensitive or resistant to anti-programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) therapy. The expression of circRNA discs large homolog 1 (DLG1) was determined in a larger cohort of primary and distant metastatic gastric cancer tissues. The role of circDLG1 in gastric cancer progression was evaluated both in vivo and in vitro, and the effect of circDLG1 on the antitumor activity of anti-PD-1 was evaluated in vivo. The interaction between circDLG1 and miR-141-3p was assessed by RNA immunoprecipitation and luciferase assays. RESULTS: circDLG1 was significantly upregulated in distant metastatic lesions and gastric cancer tissues resistant to anti-PD-1 therapy and was associated with an aggressive tumor phenotype and adverse prognosis in gastric cancer patients treated with anti-PD-1 therapy. Ectopic circDLG1 expression promoted the proliferation, migration, invasion, and immune evasion of gastric cancer cells. Mechanistically, circDLG1 interacted with miR-141-3p and acted as a miRNA sponge to increase the expression of CXCL12, which promoted gastric cancer progression and resistance to anti-PD-1-based therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our findings demonstrate how circDLG1 promotes gastric cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion and immune evasion and provide a new perspective on the role of circRNAs during gastric cancer progression.